Crushing on Cream Puffs
by MagixPL
Summary: For the past week, Isogai has been receiving gifts from a secret admirer. When his classmates find out, they decide to take it upon themselves to find the culprit and help the person confess.
1. Chapter 1: PS You're Cute

Chapter 1: P.S. You're Cute.

Opening the sliding door to the classroom, Isogai's tired body moved on autopilot as he shifted though the room towards his desk. He said good morning to his fellow classmates who were scattered among the room and chattering amongst themselves, before coming to his seat. Usually in the morning, their teacher gave them a few minutes to catch up with each other after the weekend before starting class. At least that's what he said anyways. They all knew that he secretly just wanted an excuse to sleep longer before teaching his troublesome class.

Looking over further down the row, he noticed his best friend, Maehara hadn't arrived yet.

That was certainly strange. Usually his friend was one of the first ones here, and very rarely was the boy ever late. He had learned the hard way over the years how energetic the boy could be in the morning, and most mornings nowadays was spent with his friend fruitlessly trying to wake Isogai from his tired state.

Although he had to admit, witnessing Maehara's cheerfulness in the morning was effective in improving his own mood. It was something about the boy's easygoing and affable nature that made Isogai feel more alert yet at ease all at the same time. More often than not, he felt that his optimism was kind of endearing.

Feeling his cheeks starting to warm, Isogai quickly shook the intruding thoughts out of his head.

He didn't know when he started developing these warm, squishy feelings for his best friend, but it wasn't a good thing in the slightest. Although he was often reduced to a playboy in the eyes of his classmates, when it was just the two of them, Maehara was actually one of the most caring, funniest, and carefree people Isogai had ever met. He could talk to him about anything and was always there for him when he was feeling down or discouraged.

Not to mention that the boy was one of the most attractive guys in their grade, and Isogai was hella gay.

However it wasn't like he could act on these feelings of his. Even though Maehara had already come out as bi a year ago, that didn't mean that his friend had any feelings for him. All Isogai knew for sure was that he wouldn't dare risk their friendship over something as petty as a crush.

Which was exactly why he needed to get over whatever these feelings were because it would only be troublesome in the future. Maehara could get anybody he wanted and was known to not take relationships seriously. Why would he ever like someone like him?

He moved to pull his chair out from under his desk when something sticking partially out of his desk caught his attention. He eyed the package that was left there, having an idea of who the gift was from.

For the past week he had been receiving small gifts, flowers, and poems from a secret admirer. This in itself wasn't all that surprising, considering the many admirers he had at this this school, however judging from the notes that he received with each gift, they seemed to know him very well. It was all the more embarrassing since he had no clue who the persons was.

Nonetheless, none of his classmates had caught on to the gifts that were stuffed into his desk every morning, so he opted not to tell them, knowing they would go into an uproar and try to expose the culprit. Although the secret admirer act was kind of cliche and wouldn't really amount to much success if he didn't know who they were, he didn't want them to be uncomfortable at the expense of their classmates.

He snapped out of his thoughts and pulled the package out of the desk, placing it carefully on the top. It was a small white box, although far bigger than any of the other gifts, and there was a star sticky note placed on the lid, the same kind he had received on the others. He peeled the note off before beginning to decipher the messy scrawl on the paper.

 _you were starting to look a little worn out so I thought these would make you feel better,_

He felt the corner of his lips turn up at the caring tone of the note. He thought that was the end but in the bottom corner he saw the message continue in tiny writing.

 _p.s. you're cute._

His face immediately heated up at the remark. Despite getting love confessions practically every week, not many of the girls took his well being into account or managed to give him a gift with their letters. And they most definitely weren't that blunt with their confessions.

He moved to open the container to see its contents but before he could do so, he noticed Kataoka approaching his desk.

"Good morning Isogai-kun!" his fellow class leader greeted him as she walked to her desk.

"Ah, good morning, Kataoka-san," he replied, unsuccessfully attempting to hide the mysterious container.

"Eh? What's that?" Kataoka asked, looking curiously at the box that Isogai was so focused on.

He momentarily panicked. Isogai hadn't told anyone about the gifts yet, and though he could probably trust the class leader not to laugh at his romantic endeavors, it was still pretty embarrassing.

He reluctantly handed over the sticky note, figuring she would find out sooner or later. After reading the the note she giggled, giving him a knowing look. Isogai, obviously not understanding, looked perplexed.

"What's so funny?"

"Well it seems you have a secret admirer."

As soon as the words "secret admirer" left her mouth, nearly all the girls in the class stopped their conversation to pester the poor boy standing idly at his desk.

"Eh? Isogai has a secret admirer?" Kurahashi loudly shouted, trying to see over Kataoka's shoulder. Yep, he knew letting her know was a bad idea.

Nagisa sweat-dropped at the girls' antics. "Isn't it a known fact that he has many admirers?"

"Seriously, that was the whole reason why he was he was given the whole "ikemen" alias." Sugino added on, not understanding what the big deal was.

"But all of those girls publicly announce their affection," Nakamura denied dramatically. "When someone operates under a secret admirer, that usually means that they are too afraid to confess in person! We must aid our fellow classmate in their pining attempts of love."

He rolled his eyes at their over exaggerating of the situation. "Well it has to be one of you that has been sending me gifts all week."

"All week?" the girls shouted in unison.

"Man, whoever this is has it bad," Kayano sighed, shaking her head.

"Don't worry Isogai, I'll find your secret lover," Nakamura encouraged, slapping him on the back for good measure before walking up to the front of the classroom. "Ok people, mandatory meeting after class. Whoever it is, be ready to confess."

"Actually Nakamura-san, I have work today so I can't make it." He actually didn't have to be at work until five, but he would do anything to escape this awkward situation.

"Well, we can still find out who the person is and persuade them to confess tomorrow," Karma piped up from the back, obviously wanting to tease the class leader.

Great, like that's any better.

At that moment, Maehara stumbled through the sliding door of the classroom, looking especially tired. He moved towards his desk, yawning every few moments and rubbing his eyes tiredly.

"Hey, Maehara, where were you this morning?" Isogai asked as he moved past, "You're usually not this late...or this tired." He had to admit though, he never realized how cute a sleepy Maehara looked until that moment.

"Heh, yeah about that. I kinda overslept this morning." Maehara admitted, sheepishly rubbing the back of his neck in embarrassment.

Now that was definitely strange. Maehara almost never slept in. If he sun was up, he was up. Isogai briefly wondered what Maehara was doing all night that made him so tired.

"Maehara-kun! Did you know that Isogai has a secret admirer?" Fuwa asked, bringing the topic back to the more important matter at the moment.

Maehara visibly stiffened. "Everybody knows about that?" he muttered under his breath.

"Huh, what was that?" Nakamura raised her eyebrow in speculation.

"I-uh-nothing," Maehara not-so-suspiciously replied, face reddening slightly.

Isogai sent a concerned look to his friend. "Are you ok? You don't have a fever do you? You look a little red." He moved to check his friend's forehead for further fever symptoms, but before he could do so, Maehara was already quickly continuing down the aisle towards his desk.

"Ah, I'm fine, I just didn't get much sleep last night," Maehara stated, taking his seat further down the row.

"Oh, Isogai-kun, you never opened the box," Kataoka pointed to the gift that started this whole secret admirer fiasco.

Right, he hadn't even opened the gift yet.

He peeled the tape off the side holding the cardboard in place before flipping up the lid and displaying the contents to the class.

"Cream puffs?" Sugaya asked questioningly.

Isogai, however, was practically salivating at the fluffy treats. Ever since he had tried them at Kataoka's house a few weeks ago, he had been hooked on the pastries. He still dreamt about them time to time.

Realizing his slip up, he quickly shut the box before composing himself. However, everyone had not missed the look of pure lust in their class leaders eyes over the box of desserts.

"Ah, they're his favorite dessert" Kataoka explained, her eyebrow raised.

Isogai, knowing that if he ate one now he would have no self restraint against eating the whole box, opted to save them for when he got home to share with the rest of his family. He packed the box into his bag, taking out some of his books to make room for the treats.

There was then a gust of wind and a scattering of loose papers as their teacher, Korosensei, flew into the classroom, and the rest of the students started to gravitate back to their respective desks.

"Ok class, I hope you had a good weekend. I will begin with the roll call."

As their teacher took roll, Isogai sent Maehara another questioning look when he caught the boy nodding off at his desk, but he just waved him off, signaling he was fine. Isogai stared after him before sighing and opening his books to their current lesson.


	2. Chapter 2: 'Good Cream Puff Recipe'

Chapter 2: 'Good Cream Puff Recipe'

"Ok everyone, let the meeting begin," Nakamura stated bluntly, waltzing into the room while Fuwa wrote on the chalkboard.

Due to the girl's profound detective skills, Nakamura had recruited Fuwa to help investigate Isogai's secret admirer case. The two currently stood at the front of the class, dressed up in 19th century detective gear, complete with trench coats and magnifying glasses, probably suggested by the manga-loving girl. They were really going all out on this one.

"Now, before we move on with the meeting, is there anyone who would like to speak up and admit that they are the admirer?"

Silence rang throughout the classroom.

Terasaka groaned, throwing his head back, "Would someone please just confess so we can go home."

The whole class, minus Isago and Maehara, had been forced to stay after school to discuss the topic of Isogai's secret admirer. Isago was excused because he had to go to work, and Nakamura had taken pity on Maehara after seeing how tired the poor boy was, allowing him go home early. However, the rest of them were stuck there to participate in the meeting.

Nakamura shot him a threatening look before turning back to the rest of the class.

"Come on, you don't have to be shy, we're here to help. Besides, almost everyone has had a crush on Isogai at least once, it's nothing to be embarrassed about." Most of the class nodded their head in mild agreement, although they knew that with these two, the admirer's problem would probably only get more complicated if the girls decided to interfere.

After being met with silence yet again, she sighed, "Well I guess we'll move on to our pre-decided suspects."

When Fuwa finished writing, there was a 'Top Suspect' list written up on the board:

Okuda Manami

Maehara Hiroto

Kataoka Megu

Bitch-sensei

Hara was the first to speak up about the list, asking the main question that everyone was wondering, "Can I ask why Bitch-sensei is on here?"

Yes, clearly the only questionable person on the list.

"I'll get to that, we'll discuss each person's placement and reason for suspicion," Fuwa explained, focusing her gaze on the first person written on the board.

"Although it could be anybody, these are the most likely suspects," Nakamura continued. "So we'll start with Okuda. Do you have anything to explain?"

Okuda fidgeted uncomfortably in her seat as the whole room stared at her in anticipation.

"...It wasn't me," she finally squeaked out.

"How can we be so sure?" Fuwa mused, holding her magnifying glass up to the girl's face, searching for any signs of lying. "The secret admirer type fits your character to a T."

"I, um, can't bake."

"What?" the whole class asked, not understanding her reasoning.

She hurried to explain, "Well, whoever made those cream puffs for Isogai obviously made it themselves, and I ruin everything I bake." She did bring up a valid point. The girl did set fire to the Home Ec. class last year trying to bake a cake.

"But nobody said anything about them being homemade," Fuwa countered back.

"Well, they looked a little burnt so I just assumed…"

Nakamura, however, wasn't entirely convinced, "So you're telling me that you can mix up a bunch of chemicals into deadly poisons, but you can't bake a measly cream puff?"

Okuda nodded, hanging her head in shame as her kitchen skills were denounced in front of everyone. Nakamura sighed, they weren't going to get anywhere questioning her. Well, back to square one.

"We'll come back to you," Fuwa sternly stated, eyeing the girl suspiciously, before moving onto the next person.

"Ok, number two is Maehara."

"Why is he on there anyways?" Mimura asked, confused.

"According to reliable research," the class doubted the reliability of this research, "ten percent of the world population is gay. To compensate for this, we had to consider a guy for the suspect list."

"And what guy hangs out with Isogai the most? Maehara!" Nakamura tagged on at the end of Fuwa's explanation.

Terasaka saw through this justification immediately, "Please, you two just wanted to fuel your BL obsession."

Nakamura just stuck her tongue out at him, though the class knew that he was mostly right.

"I wouldn't be surprised if it was him," said Karma, relaxing back into his chair, "It's obvious that they have a thing for each other. And they're always blushing around one another, I'm surprised they haven't figured it out themselves."

"See? Karma agrees with me," she retorted, folding her arms arrogantly. "And he did seem a little suspicious this morning when Fuwa mentioned the secret admirer."

Fuwa nodded. "It's a shame we can't interrogate him to today, but we'll be on that case first thing tomorrow," she announced, an evil glint in her eye.

Nakamura turned back to the board, moving on to the third subject, "Ok next is Kataoka."

Kataoka, however, only smiled knowingly, "Me? Oh trust me, I think I have a pretty good idea of who Isogai likes. If it were me, my heart would have been crushed by now."

Well that got the class' attention.

"Wait, you know who Isogai likes?" Fuwa asked in disbelief.

"He never told me outright, but it's kind of obvious that he likes Maehara."

And in 3...2...1…

"Eh?!"

"When we talk, he never shuts up about him," she explained. "And like Karma said, it's obvious that he cares way too much about Maehara for it to just be a friendly relationship."

"Ugh, not you too Kataoka," Terasaka groaned.

After five minutes of the class pestering Kataoka to spill details of her and Isogai's conversations, Nakamura finished writing the rest of the details in her notebook.

"Thank you for that extra information Kataoka, your contribution to this case has been greatly appreciated," she evilly grinned, slamming her notebook closed. Nobody knew what she planned to do with the added information, and judging by her eager face, no one really wanted to know.

She then moved on to the fourth and final suspect, "Ok, now I know what all of you are thinking. 'But why Bitch-sensei?', 'Doesn't she like Karasuma-sensei?', 'Isn't that pedeophila?'"

Yep, that pretty much summed up what the whole class was thinking.

"However," Fuwa continued dramatically, "did you ever consider that this might be a test provided by our teacher?" Well, the seductress had been teaching them lately how to use charm in their assassination attempts.

"Maybe she's testing him to see if and how Isogai can use a factor such as a secret admirer to his advantage for assassinations."

The class had to admit, the situation wasn't that unlikely. Their foreign teacher was always giving them weird tests and teaching them suggestive phrases that would "aid them in their assassinations", as she liked to say.

Nagisa spoke up from where he was sitting, "That theory is flawed though, what does Bitch-sensei have to gain from any of this? And why would she only test Isogai?"

Nakamura froze, she didn't even think about that. Dammit, that boy always did pay attention to the smaller details.

"You're not really good at this are you?" Karma teased.

"Why you little-"

"Actually, you weren't wrong about Maehara." The class all turned to Ritsu, who had been quiet the entire meeting.

"Eh? Ritsu, what do you mean?" Kurahashi questioned the AI.

"Well, Maehara is the one who has been leaving gifts in Isogai's desk," the AI stated calmly.

The class however was not calm.

"Whaaaat?!"

"Called it," added Karma from his seat.

"How do you know this Ritsu?" Nakamura questioned, notebook ready to jot down any vital information that the digital girl provided.

"Well he's been coming in extra early in the morning and leaving gifts in Isogai's desk all week. I even captured video evidence on my security cameras."

The girl disappeared from the screen and was replaced by footage of Maehara standing by Isogai's desk, the box of cream puffs from this morning in his hand. It was the first time the class had seen the usually suave boy so flustered. He kept pulling the gift in and out of his bag, as if wondering if he should leave it or not. Eventually he just shoved it into the back of the desk, before leaving with an unmistakable blush on his face. When the video finished, Ritsu reappeared on the screen, giggling as if remembering a fond memory.

"The search history on his phone has also been interesting. His most searched terms are 'How to know if you're gay for your best friend' and 'Gift ideas for your crush'."

"Wait you can track what we search on our phones?" Yoshida questioned, seemingly traumatized. The rest of the class, however, paid him no mind and listened on in shock, not truly believing what they were hearing.

"Last night at 1:39 he searched 'good cream puff recipe', and he brought the cream puffs in at 3:26. He was up pretty late last night baking them so he probably brought them in early so he would be able to sleep in."

"So that's why he was so tired this morning," Okujima stated obviously.

Nakamura was the first to recover from the initial shock of the situation. "Wait, if you knew all this time, why didn't you say anything at the beginning of the meeting?"

"I wanted to hear the reasoning behind Bitch-sensei" Ritsu bluntly answered. The class sighed in exasperation at her reasoning, although they couldn't deny that they were equally curious.

"Well judging by that obvious pining displayed in that video, I think we have some matchmaking to do." Fuwa began to erase the suspect list off the board before writing 'Matchmaking Ideas' in its place. "And now that we know the feeling is most likely mutual, we have to think a plan to get them together."

Nobody wanted to know what was in store for the two boys, and they almost felt sorry for their two unfortunate classmates.

Although, not that sorry, as hands started to raise to pitch in their idea. If all went to plan, the class would be able to fix this situation very soon.


End file.
